| Excerpts From Kashf al Mahjub |
| Allah The Almighty has said, �O believers! Whosoever among you apostatize from their religion, God will assuredly bring in their stead a people whom He will love and who will love Him.� (Qur'an: 5:59) He has also said, �Some men take idols beside God and love them as they love God, but the believers love God best� (Qur'an: 2: 160) |
| This Website is created and maintained by Seema Arif |
 |
| Next Page |
| (pages 304-313) |
| LOVE |
| Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) has said, �I�ve heard Gabriel saying that God has said, � Whoever despises any of My friends has declared war against Me. I do not hesitate in anything as I hesitate to seize the soul of My faithful servant who dislikes death and whom I dislike to hurt, but he cannot escape therefrom; and no means whereby My servant seeks My favor is more pleasing to Me than the performance of the obligations which I have laid upon him; and my servant continuously seeks My favor by works of supererogation until I love him, and when I love him I am his hearing and his sight and his hand and his helper.� |
| God Loves His People |
| Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) has also said, �God loves to meet those who love to meet Him, and dislikes to meet those who dislike to meet Him�. When God loves a Man, He says to Gabriel, �O Gabriel, I Love such and such one, so do thou love him�; then Gabriel loves him and says to the dwellers in Heaven, �God loves such and such a one,� and they love him too; then he bestows favors on him in the earth, so that he is loved by the inhabitants of the earth; and as it happens with regard to Love, so does it happen with regard to hate.� |
| Mahabbat (love) is said to be derived from (hibbat), which are seeds that fall to the earth in desert. The name (hubb) love was given to such seeds (hibb), because love is the sources of life just as seeds are the origin of plants. As seeds hidden in earth are not corrupted by the change or severity of season, but grow up to give life and beauty to earth, so does love, when it takes dwelling in the heart, is not corrupted by presence or absence, by pleasure or pain, by separation or union. |
| As the body subsists through the spirit, so the heart subsists through love, and love subsists through vision of, and union of beloved. Others again declare that hubb is name applied to pure love, because Arabs call the pure white of the human eye habbat al insan, just as they call pure black (core) of the heart habbat al qalb: the latter is the seat of Love, the former of vision. Hence the heart and eye are rivals in love, as the poet says: |
| Back To Index |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Spiritual Meaning of Love: Mahabbat |
| Others say that Mahabbat is derived from hubb, meaning �a jar full of stagnant water�, because when love is collected in the heart and fills it, there is no room there for any thought except for the beloved, as Shibli says, �Love is called Mahabbat because it obliterates (tamhu) from heart everything except the beloved.� Others say that Mahabbat is derived from hubb, meaning �the four conjoined pieces of wood on which a water-jug is placed, because a lover lightly bears whatever his beloved metes to him � honor or disgrace, pain or pleasure, fair treatment or foul�. Some others say that Mahabbat is derived from habb, plural of habbat, meaning core of the heart where love resides. In this case, Mahabbat is called by the name of its dwelling place. Others derive it from habab, �bubbles of water and the effervescence thereof in heavy rainfall�, because love is the effervescence of heart in longing for union with the beloved. |
| �My heart envies mine eye the pleasure of seeing,
And my eye envies my heart the pleasure of meditating.� |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|